‘Severely Contaminated Hotspots’ Found In Tokyo

As our first work of our Nationwide Soil Testing Project, we tested soil samples from 150 areas in the Tokyo metropolitan area. This project is the first unified investigation on the diffusion of radioactive particles in the metropolitan area including Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama, Kanagawa, and Ibaraki prefectures, whereas the national and local governments are separately performing their investigations.

Local participants of this project collected soil samples from their preferred locations, and sent them to the same laboratory to test radioactive particles (Iodine-131, Cesium-134, and Cesium-137.) As a result, we discovered that the radioactive fallout in the metropolitan area was quite significant. Some of the extremely high numbers show that there are severely contaminated “hotspots” within the city.

We would be continuing our soil testing project on a nationwide level, to then bring actual ideas and actions to prevent the various effects of radiation.